Today's cherished Nugget from guest blogger Pastor Bill.

At 14 years of age, the “bad boy” of a little Massachusetts town, was so powerful in his influence for evil that no one was found able to teach the district school which he attended; it seemed “pretty poor soil.” Everyone said the student in question was “bad clear through,” “hopeless,” and “bound to go to ruin.”

One day a new teacher came who said he was not afraid to try. The school friends were quick to tell him all the stories of “the Marcy boy.” All advised that he be forbidden to enter the school. However, he was allowed to enter. The teacher analyzed the “hopeless soil,” and began at once to enrich it with kindness, justice, goodwill and confidence, and at the right time, dropped in seeds of ambition, hope and self-respect. The seed took root, developed, grew and began to bear fruit.

The promising young student dropped his bad habits, studied day and night, went to college, and graduated with honors. He studied law, answered the call for men in 1812, became associate justice of the Supreme Court, United States senator, governor of New York, and finally Secretary of State. His name was William L. Marcy.

He served faithfully in every situation. All of this happened because a good teacher saw in a child the image of God!

Thank you, God for my parents, my teachers, youth workers, pastors and friends who planted seeds and prayed for me through the years. Please forgive me for the knot-heads like myself that I failed to see the finished product and let slip through the cracks. Let me keep my eyes open to plant the seeds necessary to change each one’s life.

God loved you so much He gave His only Son for you. (John 3:16)